10th.: A Strained Rapport
Sometimes sins can overcome anyone.
King David committed one such pair of sins.
First, he had an adulterous affair with a lady named Bathsheba.
Second, he murdered Bathsheba's husband, Uriah.
As an aside, Uriah was one of David’s best soldiers (2nd Sam. 23:39).
Yet God loved David. So God then sent Nathan the prophet to rebuke King David (2nd Sam. 12:1-12).
King David did not quibble.
His immediate response was, “I have sinned against the Lord.” (2nd Sam. 12:13).
The punishments God proclaimed leading up to David’s admission of guilt stayed in effect (2nd Sam. 12:10-12).
Nevertheless, God did not take the punishment to the next step. “The Lord has put away thy sin, thou shalt not die.” (2nd Sam. 12:13).
King David then wrote Psalm 51, pouring out his heart to the Lord, asking God to help him be a better man, and servant of the Lord.
Be quick to seek God's forgiveness. Praying Psalm 51, ‘as if it were our own’, may even be helpful.
The sooner we take bad moral decisions to the Lord, the sooner we can get back in a good relationship with God, and keep up our rapport with Him.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful, and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1st John 1:9)